Gallup: ObamaCare Approval Bottoms Out Amid Gruber’s Comments

The president’s signature health care law has never enjoyed majority support among the American people, but it now stands at its lowest level of support ever measured by Gallup. The survey conducted by Gallup from Nov. 6-9, 2014, is particularly noteworthy due to Gallup’s better-than-average results juxtaposed to the PPD average of ObamaCare approval polls.

With the second open enrollment period beginning, just 37 percent of Americans say they approve of the law, which is one percentage lower than the previous low in January. Meanwhile, 56 percent disapprove, also a new high by one point.

Gallup conducted one of the two polls to ever show more people approved of the law than not, the other was an ABC/WaPo Poll conducted during the first open enrollment period. In the trend line above, we can see Gallup’s results were released around the time the president won reelection and, even though it was alone in its findings, it wasn’t such a clear outlier as was the case with the other pollster’s survey.

“Americans have never been overly positive toward the ACA, at best showing a roughly equal division between approval and disapproval early on in the law’s implementation,” said Justin McCarthy of Gallup. “The percentage of Americans who approve of the law represents a new numerical low, which could indicate a loss of faith in the law amid the aftermath of the 2014 midterms.”

Or, another interpretation, could be that the results are in response to the latest string of videos catching MIT economist and ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber saying Democrats relied upon “a lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter” to pass the bill. In the initial video, as well as others that followed, Gruber basically provides a window into the liberal Ivory Tower mindset, which is that they know what’s best for the American people, not the American people, themselves.

Or, it could be a combination of both. But the American people aren’t as stupid as some D.C. pols would like to believe. A PPD investigation recently concluded that the president — among many others — were, in fact, in “the know” over the tactics Gruber identified to pass the bill. Unsurprisingly, the American people had already expressed their belief that he did in recent PPD tracking surveys.

With Obama’s veto power certain to be exercised, repeal is unlikely during the president’s final two years in office. However, not only can and will the newly elected Republican majority continue to chop away at the law in spending bills, the law is far from safe.

In July, the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated ObamaCare subsidies for health insurance obtained through the federally-run HealthCare.gov. The ruling was a major blow to the president’s signature health care law, and it teed-up the second time the constitutionality of the law would once again be decided in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Nov. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenge to ObamaCare and, now, more voters than not say it is a good idea to delay ObamaCare until the high court has a chance to rule.

A new survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports found a plurality wants to delay implementation of ObamaCare until all legal challenges are exhausted, which may not be likely to happen, either, but demonstrates the law is in for a hard road ahead after fours years.